Dino Morea and Onjolee Nair in Holiday, and (left) Dino with director Pooja Bhatt making a splash on the sets of the film

l Why did you decide to make a musical after Paap?

After Paap, I produced Rog and I realised that probably we were not going in the right area. There?s a tendency in this industry to plan the future from the past. The idea is that if you have made one genre work, you can make it work again. There lies the trap. When we made Rog, people thought it was part two of Jism and that?s where it failed. So after Rog, when I was at my father?s place one evening, my 11-year-old sister Aaliyah asked me to make a film, which she and her friends can watch. Then I decided to make something young which can be watched by anyone between two and 64.

lSo what is Holiday all about?

It?s the classic story of an ugly duckling becoming a swan. But the transformation is not cosmetic. It is a completely internal metamorphosis. It?s about how this girl, who is not comfortable with the way she is, meets a group of people on a vacation and how she is changed at the end of it all. Dino is a part of that group where she finds herself blending in with complete ease. It?s like when you say, ?I love you? to someone, you are telling that person how special you feel in her presence.

lThat sounds like Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin. Do you fear comparisons with the soap?

Jassi, Iqbal, they are all stories about the underdog. They all fall in the same genre where the audiences feel bad for some character and want him or her to win against all odds. But in Holiday, the girl doesn?t go for an exaggerated fake look like in Jassi. Also, Mona ordinarily is a gorgeous girl. Not so with my heroine Onjolee, who is an odd-looking animal.

lWhy did you decide to replace your heroine after four days of shooting?

I started the film with my cousin Smiley in the lead. I trained her for months before going to Goa for the start-to-finish schedule. And then I had the most disastrous four days. She just couldn?t deliver. Then I called Onjolee over to Goa. I had auditioned her before Paap but she was too young then, around 17. I asked her to come without any expectations ? she could play the leading lady or go back the next day. But once the camera was on, it was a unanimous decision. I haven?t seen a better actress since Kajol. She doesn?t look like any conventional beauty and that was the need of the role ? a simple girl.

lWhy did you cast Dino Morea in a role which demands a whole lot of dancing?

I have never interacted with Dino before although he?s worked in the Bhatt production Raaz. He called me up one day asking whether I was making a film about Latin American dancing and that he was good with it. He admitted that he wasn?t good with Bollywood steps but could do the Latino moves. I put him in a room, played the music and said, ?Dance Dino? (laughs). And I observed a certain grace in the way he danced. Then, of course, he put in a lot of effort, went through several sweat sessions and he was on board.

The thing about Latin dancing is that you don?t look at the man, you only look at the woman. And only when the man is not seamless, he distracts your view from the woman. Dino?s done a great job. We all know that Shahid?s a great dancer and Hrithik?s a very good dancer. But Dino is a good dancer too, in his own way.

lIsn?t Holiday a rehash of Dirty Dancing?

The basic premise of a family going on a vacation and their lives changing forever is the same. So is the dancing structure but the characterisation is totally different. Dirty Dancing was more about the sexual awakening of a girl. I didn?t want to get into that area. It?s a topic we have touched upon before (in Paap). Holiday is more about the pressure we have to deal with everyday of having to look good and behave in a certain way. There?s no philosophical question here. A moment will move you only if it?s raw and not contrived.

lIn terms of making, how different was Holiday from Paap?

Here, we were dealing with a different story, a different goal, a different desire. For the first time I was working with such a big ensemble cast ? almost every scene had nine to 10 people together and I didn?t want to shoot them in a line like a soap. I had a lot of challenges this time. I was determined to finish the film in time after having changed the lead actor.

lYou didn?t have your father on the sets for Holiday...

Yes, for the first time, I didn?t turn around and ask Daddy for advice. In that way, Holiday became autobiographical in nature. Every girl?s aspiration is to make her father proud. There was this illusion in our production house, Vishesh Films, that Pooja can make movies only if father Mahesh Bhatt was on the sets. Here, I braved this big crisis of making the film within budget despite running into those initial problems.

Dad visited the sets for the last couple of days. And he messaged me later saying, ?Now, I can die in peace. You don?t need me anymore.? That to me was the film?s release and turning into a blockbuster. It was greater than any award and of more value than any money.

I realised what Dad meant when he had told me how he lost his years as a film-maker after his mother died. Because the only audience he played to was not there anymore.